More than 95% of photographic films which are sold and used at present are of 135 format, which makes great rationalization possible and highly efficient automation of the developing.
For this purpose the large laboratories for developing photographic films are equipped with various machines which are arranged for treating a large number of films in a chain so as to reduce human intervention as far as possible.
These large laboratories generally receive the films to be dealt with enclosed individually in pouches enabling them to be sent, for example, through the post. Thus the first operation to be carried out consists in sorting the pouches as a function of the various technical and commercial criteria such, in particular, as the matt or glossy character of the paper and the format of the printing.
Once the pouches have been sorted according to these criteria, the films which answer one and the same definition are assembled end-to-end so that they form one long ribbon enabling treatment truly in series.
In order to group the films into one continuous ribbon of film, machines are employed which allow a plurality of films to be connected automatically in series. These machines (daylight film splicers) are arranged so as to enable an operator to introduce the rolls of film into them while still closed, the machine carrying out automatically and in absolute darkness the opening of the rolls, the unwinding of the films and the connection of the films end-to-end, which enables the operator to work in daylight. Previously, in fact, the operators used to stick the films together by hand and hence had to work in an infra red ambient. A machine of this type is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,543,151.
Each splicer is coupled to a data unit equipped with a station for picking up data, which enables data which is individual to the order associated with each roll of film, to be picked up in succession for each roll just before the introduction of the roll into the machine. Thus the association of the data picked up with the physical film is effected by correspondence between the order in which the data are picked up and the order in which the films are placed end-to-end.
In an automated laboratory the orders are generally dealt with the very day they are received. In order to be able to absorb rapidly the daily bulk of the films to be dealt with, it must be possible to carry out very rapidly the splicing of the different types of film. In order to achieve this there is scarcely any other possibility than to provide a large number of splicers working in parallel simultaneously. Now, splicers being very costly machines, the cost of investment by a laboratory becomes considerably burdened.